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Golding gets maiden Trans Am win

James Golding

By Thomas Miles

A late twist of events has helped James Golding get a maiden Trans Am win after gearing issues brought Jordan Boys’ dominance to an end.

A dramatic race 3 ended early after 20 laps due to a grass fire emerging on the edge of turn 5 but just prior to that the race was turned upside down.

Despite being beaten by Elliott Barbour off the line, Boys regained the lead on lap 6.

He appeared unbeatable on track for a hat-trick of wins only to suddenly slow down the back straight on lap 20.

Boys’ Racing Academy Mustang was stuck in fourth gear and despite the drama he managed to hold onto fourth when the chequered flag suddenly arrived on lap 20.

Just prior to that the new fight for the lead between Golding and Barbour burst into life.

Golding had been all over the back of the sole Camaro for a number of laps and on the penultimate trip through the last corner the Supercars star pounced.

He dived down the inside of Barbour to steal the win by just two tenths, while Todd Hazelwood completed the podium ahead of the unfortunate Boys and Nathan Herne.

Golding felt for Boys but was delighted to get his first Trans Am win in just his second round.

“Really unfortunate for Jordan there but we were focused on the end of the race,” Golding said.

“Elliott was super strong coming out of the hairpin but we managed to get him so I am super stoked.

“I knew we did not have too much time left so tried to get it done as soon as I could.”

Boys was disappointed to see a chance of a perfect weekend disappearing but revealed a decision to crawl in fourth gear and not run the risk of getting it jammed by making a further shift was the key to securing fourth.

“I thankfully got around Elliott who was doing a really good job coming out of the hairpin,” Boys reflected on the start.

“We did not quite have the balance of yesterday and just came out the hairpin and it was stuck in fourth.

“I knew it was close to the finish so was praying for a SC for the fire and didn’t want to get it jammed so just crawled around to make it home.”

The fourth and final Trans Am race is at 14.05 AEDT.

Trans Am race 3 results

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